first off a little info about the truck.

2004 f250 6.0 automatic. a couple in their mid 40's owned the truck before me.
mods that i can tell/see:
Banks intercooler with the high ram system.
full K&N intake system
4" turbo back straight pipe



im new to the diesel scene so bear with me .i just bought the truck a few days ago. looking to address the trouble the 6.0l have about the like the egr cooler and hg failure. Im trying to see if the egr cooler has been replaced/blocked off/ welded shut. i don't want to tear it down to see if its been replaced or not. is there anyway to tell for sure if its been messed with just by looking? from what i understand the 2004's came with a square body, which is what mine is. there are no markings on it other than a string of numbers stamped on the top of the body. 184408507, 10290, 1249. thought they might be part numbers so i checked fords pn and didn't get anything considering there numbers have letters as well. i would like to think the cooler has been taken care of considering the mods done to the truck but i know how some poeples minds work

 

If it has a square tube on the pass side up pipe then at least that part of the egr setup is on the truck. if the ports on this pipe are blocked off then your egr is blocked off. Also if the egr valve is still on the intake that does not mean the system is still on the truck. for instance my egr valve is plugged in but there is no cooler and the up pipe has been replaced my a non egr one. only reason i left mine in was to keep the check engine light off.

 

So essentially there is no way to tell unless you tear it apart.

 

You could pull the erg valve and clean it all up real good and then reinstall it, pull it out a couple weeks later and see if it is still spotless, if it is then it is blocked off, if it has sutt residue back on it then it is still in operation.

 

Does it have a straight up pipe on the passenger side? Or does it have a y? You can see it from under... Comes from the pass side exhaust manifold...

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Scratch that helps when I read it better and see that you said it has a square one...

 

You have the cooler there. If the last owner took the time to remove it, and weld it shut, then no worries. Other than that, I'd be doing that or doing an EGR delete myself. Where do you live?

 

Originally the trucks from.chillicothe ohio and the waverly ohio area. I live in southern Ohio. Given the trucks age and ohios weather, I expected to see more rust. The coolers body is in great shape, no rust or anything. Are the units aluminum or stainless? Mine looks like its stainless but I could be wrong. Does the delete kit manufacturer really matter? They all seem to be pretty much the same.

 

They are stainless, and eventually they will all rupture, if not plugged up. Unfortunately removal is the only way to tell if it was welded shut. My guess is nothing was done with it.

You can do a "EGR delete" as cheap as $5 by welding in the freeze plugs into the cooler and effectively cutting flow off, you can get some of the middle ground kits for a hair under $200 like I did, that eliminate the cooler and valve and replace the up-pipe with a solid one piece unit, or you can spend as much as $600, or even $1200 on complete intake manifolds with the coolant passage machined off ($1200 is a ported intake manifold).

They all serve the same general function, but just different ways to skin the cat. Some provide more performance, some are aimed at the budget conscious guy, etc.

 

thats what i thought. thank you mdub. just didn't wanna tear it down and have to put it back together with problematic parts to have to tear it down again to replace it was hoping there was a tell tale sign it was taken care of. it goes to the shop tomorrow for small service so i'll ask them about getting me in touch with the previous owner. he would be the person to tell me for sure without doing the footwork myself.

 

How can you tell? Well, if you pound the skinny pedal from a dead stop and it intially takes off like a slug then pins you in the seat, you have a fully functional EGR cooler! The EGR cooler scavenges exhaust gases making low end/off idle response all but non-existent. Also, most folks take out the EGR valve when doing an EGR delete, I left mine in. When I took mine off it dramatically improved throttle response and EGTs peeled off faster.